Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Well, we endured another plane flight, navigating to the Madrid train station and buying our tickets, and a rather uneventful two-and-three-quarter-hour train ride, but we are here in Salamanca. We were a little confused as to whether to stay on the bus to get to the hotel, so we rode some and then walked the rest of the way. As we were walking, a woman stopped us and asked--in English--if we had a hotel. She said she was from Israel, she had been on our train, and she needed a place to stay. We invited her along.

When we arrived at the hotel (a little over half a km later) and checked in, we knew we had stumbled upon a jewel in the midst of the city. Our room has a nice tiled bathroom--with a bidet, a refrigerator, and--much to our amazement, a balcony patio with a table and chairs!! From the balcony, we can see the skyline of the old city (see Andy's post whenever it gets done uploading for photos).

Now, a slight commentary on our hotels is necessary at this point. Our hotel in Madrid was ok, and had Wi-Fi and free breakfast. However, the Wi-Fi was very unreliable. Our hotel in Barcelona was better and had free breakfast, but did not have free Wi-Fi. This hotel in Salamanca does not have free breakfast, but it does have Wi-Fi (obviously), and the aforementioned patio with an awesome view of the city. Prices: Madrid was 70 euros/night; Barcelona was 105 euros/night. This hotel is 55 euros/night. Andy's brain exploded at this turn of events. Moving on.

We met Andy's friend Megan for tapas/dinner in the Plaza Mayor. The food here is soooooo much cheaper than in Barcelona! Megan confirmed this. It was still delicious, though. On our way back tonight, we took many photos of the beautiful lit-up Plaza Mayor and Salamanca cathedral. The architecture here is quite distinctive from the other parts of Spain we've seen. It's all sandstone and all very ornate. I began drooling over the cathedral the moment I set eyes on it. We will have to explore this, and lots of other great things, tomorrow.